Combination coffee maker and teakettle

ABSTRACT

There is disclosed a coffee maker which includes a coffeepot and a filter assembly for retaining ground coffee. An electrically heated teakettle is positioned atop the filter assembly and includes a valve which may be actuated to release a controlled amount of hot water into the filter assembly. This combination forms a drip coffee maker, the brewed coffee being retained in the pot. The teakettle may thereafter be removed and the remaining water used for brewing tea.

United States Patent lnventor Stephen Joseph Raiteri 617 Webbs HillRoad, Stamford, Conn. 06903 Appl. No. 826,227

Filed May 20, 1969 Patented Dec. 21, 197] COMBINATION COFFEE MAKER ANDTEAKETTLE l2 Claims, 5 Drawing Figs.

U.S. Cl 99/305, 99/306 lnt.Cl A47j 31/10 Field of Search 99/304, 305,306, 300

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[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,954,551 4/1934 Wilcox99/305 2,245,389 6/1941 Cremer 99/305 3,333,528 8/1967 Bender 99/305FOREIGN PATENTS 935,569 7/1956 Germany 99/305 Primary Examiner-Robert W.Jenkins Attorney-Wooster, Davis and Cifelli ABSTRACT: There is discloseda coffee maker which in cludes a coffeepot and a filter assembly forretaining ground coffee. An electrically heated teakettle is positionedatop the filter assembly and includes a valve which may be actuated torelease a controlled amount of hot water into the filter assembly. Thiscombination forms a drip coffee maker, the brewed coffee being retainedin the pot. The teakettle may thereafter be removed and the remainingwater used for brewing tea.

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BY 6 la a, ZZA-MLW COMBINATION COFFEE MAKER AND TEAKETTLE BACKGROUND OFTHE INVENTION This invention relates to a drip coffee maker and, moreparticularly, to such a coffee maker designed primarily for home use andincorporating a teakettle for use in making tea.

It is well known that the best coffee is made by the drip brewingprocess. Drip brewing has the advantage of permitting the water to passthrough the ground coffee only once and remaining in contact therewithfor a limited period of time. This prevents the bitterness often foundin coffee made by other processes, such as percolation, wherein thecoffee is continuously recirculated. It also has the advantage of makinga clearer brew because the filter bed formed by the coffee groundsremains unbroken in contrast to that of the wellknown vacuum coffeemaker. For these reasons, the drip method is widely used in commercialcoffee urns. It is less widely used, however, in domestic cofiee makersbecause it requires the additional steps of first heating waterseparately and then pouring it into the coffee maker. Commercial coffeeurns customarily include a separate reservoir of hot water which may beused for making tea. It would be desirable to provide a similararrangement in a small domestic coffee maker.

Accordingly, it is the primary object of this invention to provide adomestic coffee maker combining the advantages of drip brewing with aready reservoir of hot water. The manner in which this and other objectsare achieved will be apparent from the following description andappended claims.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION This invention is a combination coffee makerand teakettle comprising a receptacle for brewed coffee and filter meanspositionable atop the receptacle for supporting ground coffee therein. Ateakettle is positionable atop the filter and includes a valve forreleasing into the filter a preselected quantity of hot water.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS For a better understanding of thisinvention, reference may be had to the drawings wherein:

FIG. 1 is a side view of the combination coffee maker and teakettle ofthis invention, partially broken away to illustrate its internalconstruction;

FIG. 2 is a partial top view on an enlarged scale of the device shown inFIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a cross section taken substantially along the line 33 of FIG.2 showing the teakettle valve construction;

FIG. 4 is a cross section taken substantially along the line 4-4 of FIG.3; and

FIG. 5 is a cross section taken substantially along the line 5-5 of FIG.3.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT With particular reference toFIG. 1 there is illustrated an embodiment of this invention comprising acoffeepot l0 having a handle 12. This pot is of substantially standardconfiguration and may be made, for example, ofa heat-resistant glass. Itincludes a narrowed neck 14 terminating in a rim l6. Positioned atop therim l6 and extending into neck 14 is a filter assembly 18. The filterassembly 18 includes a housing 20 having a cylindrical upper portion 22of greater diameter than rim l6 and a cylindrical lower portion 24 ofalesser diameter than rim 16, the two portions being interconnected by aninwardly extending conical shelf 26. The open end of upper portion 22 issurrounded by a bead 28 and the lower portion terminates in a narrowinwardly extending flange 30. Molded on the outer surface of the lowerportion 24 are a pair of diametrically opposed bumps 32a, 32b. Theflange 30 supports a neoprene ring gasket 34 which extends around theinner surface of the lower portion 24.

Suspended from the housing 20 is a fine filter 36 and base 38 assembly.The fine filter 36 is substantially cylindrical and includes an inwardlyextending flange 40 at its upper end. The flange 40 defines a circularopening substantially equal to the outer diameter of lower portion 24 ofhousing 20 with the exception of two diametrically opposed notches forreceiving the bumps 32a, 3211 during assembly. After assembly, a slightrotation secures the fine filter to the housing 20. The lower edge ofthe fine filter is turned inwardly and upwardly and pressed against thedepending flange 42 of a conical base 44. The base 44 includes a lowerconical portion 46 which extends inwardly to a vertical step 48 and anupper conical portion 50 which terminates at an apex. A substantiallycylindrical coarse filter 52 is positioned with its lower edgeencircling step 48 and its upper portion resiliently engaged by gasket34. At its upper end it terminates in an outwardly extending conicalflange 54 which rests upon the conical shelf 26 of housing 20.

In order to control the rate of water flow to provide optimum resultsfor differing quantities of coffee, there is provided an adjustableslide valve 56. The slide valve 56 includes a substantially cylindricalupper portion 58 which slidingly engages the upper portion 22 of thehousing 20. A circular bead 60 is formed on the inner surface of upperportion 58 to provide a finger grip for manual adjustment. An inwardlyextending conical shoulder 62 terminates in a downwardly extendingcylindrical neck 64 which may be positioned to obstruct some of theopenings in coarse filter 52 to thereby restrict the flow of water. Itshould be pointed out that the size of the openings in filters 36 and 52is greatly exaggerated in the drawing for illustrative purposes. Theiractual size is comparable to that found in conventional coffee makers.Suspended from the top of housing 20 by means of a flange 66 is a waterdistributor comprising a circular perforated water-distributing plate68.

Mounted atop the housing 20 and distributor plate 68 is the teakettle 70portion of this invention. The diameter of the teakettle is greater thanthat of the housing 20 but it is pro vided with a smaller diameter base72 which extends downwardly within the cylindrical portion of thedistributor and retains it in position. The teakettle 70 is providedwith the usual spout 74 and includes a handle 76 which has a dualfunction, as will be later described. The base of the teakettle orprovided with an electrical heater 78 which connects to external prongs80 for receiving an electrical plug of the type commonly employed, forexample, with coffee makers. Mounted on the side of the teakettle 70 isa sight glass 82 which, by means of external markings, indicates theamount of water contained.

As previously mentioned, the handle 76 serves a dual function. Whenpositioned as shown in FIG. 1 it is locked in place and serves as theusual handle for a teakettle permitting it to be lifted and poured.However, the handle also connects to an internal valve assembly 84. Itwill be noted form FIG. 2 that the top of the teakettle 70 is providedwith the indicia 4, 8" and 12. When the handle is depressed and rotatedso that it is aligned with one of these numbers, a corresponding numberof cups of hot water is released through the bottom of the teakettleonto distributor plate 68.

The construction of valve assembly 84 is illustrated in FIG. 3. Thevalve comprises an outer sleeve 86 which may be slightly tapered asshown and extends through the teakettle from top to bottom. The upperand lower ends of the outer sleeve 86 are threaded and the upper end isretained within an opening in the teakettle top by means of an inner nut88 and an outer nut 90. Outer nut 90 defines a recess within which ispositioned a neoprene sealing gasket 92. The upper threaded end of thesleeve 86 extends above the outer nut 90 for a purpose to be described.The bottom of teakettle 70 is formed with an inwardly extending recess94 which defines an opening through which the lower threaded portion ofsleeve 86 extends. The lower portion is secured in the bottom of theteakettle in a similar fashion to the upper portion by means of an outernut 96 within the recess and upper nut 98 and gasket 100. The lower endof the outer sleeve 86 is partially closed by a flange 102 which definesa water-releasing orifice I04.

The outer sleeve 86 also defines three vertically spaced apertures 106,108, 110. In the described embodiment, the bottom of the upper aperture106-is so positioned that, when the teakettle is filled with 12 cups ofwater, there are 4 cups above the bottom of the aperture. There areanother 4 cups between the bottoms of apertures 106 and 108 and another4 cups between the bottoms of apertures 108 and 110.

Positioned within the outer sleeve 86 is an inner sleeve 112 which has amatching taper. The inner sleeve is open at its lower end and is neckeddown at its upper end 1 14 to form circumferential should 116. Thesleeve 112 defines apertures 118, 120, 122 which are in the samehorizontal planes as apertures 106, 108, 110, respectively, but arespaced about the axis of the inner sleeve by 60 increments. The upperend 114 of the inner sleeve 112 also defines a cylindrical opening 124having diametric keyways 126a, 126b, therein. The handle 76, which maybe formed from plastic or other suitable material, is shaped at its end128 to conform in cross section to the opening 124 and its associatedkeyways. The handle is thus vertically slidable relative to the innersleeve but is nonrotatable with respect to such sleeve. A horizontalflange 130 on the handle 76 is biased upwardly from the upper end 114 ofinner sleeve 112 by a coil spring 132, the handle being retained withinthe sleeve end by means of a cap nut 134. Cap nut 134 defines a centralopening 136 for handle 76 which is substantially circular but includes aradial keyway 138. Molded on the top surface of flange 130 is a radialprojection 140 which normally engages keyway 138 as a result of theupward bias supplied by spring 132. Although it will be understood thatthe valve may be secured in the teakettle in various ways, in thedisclosed embodiment the top and bottom of the teakettle are separatelyformed. The valve is assembled to the two portions and they arethereafter interconnected by sealing seam 142 in any desired manner,such as by soldering.

In order to make coffee, the base 44 and fine filter 36 are connected tothe glass housing 20 by inserting the bumps 32a, 32b through thecorresponding notches in flange 40 and then rotating. This assembly isthen placed upon the pot as illustrated in FIG. 1. The coarse filter 52is then inserted and thereafter the slide valve 56. The desired amountof ground coffee is next added so as to rest upon the conical base 44within the coarse filter 52. The slide valve 56 is then adjusted to theproper position in accordance with the number of cups of coffee to bemade. Thereafter, the distributor plate 68 is positioned in the open endof the housing 20.

The teakettle 70 is filled with the desired amount of water. Assume, forexample, that 8 cups of coffee are desired, the teakettle is filleduntil sight gauge 82 indicates 12 cups of water. During this operation,the handle 76 is in the illustrated position and the projection 140 isseated within the keyway 138 by virtue of the action of spring 132. Thusthe handle is locked so that the teakettle may be handled in the usualmanner. It will also be noted that in this position the holes in innersleeve 112 of the valve assembly 84 are not aligned with the holes inouter sleeve 86 so that water is contained solely within the teakettle70.

The teakettle is next positioned atop the filter assembly 18 and anelectrical plug is connected to the prongs 80 to heat the containedwater. When the water has reached the boiling point, the proper amountis admitted into the filter assembly. This is accomplished by depressingthe handle 76 against the force of spring 132 to release the projection140 from keyway 138. The handle is next rotated clockwise, as shown inFIG. 2, to the desired position over the 8 cup indicia. In thisposition, aperture 120 in the inner sleeve 112 is aligned with aperture108 in the outer sleeve so that the hot water in the teakettle 70 ispermitted to escape through the inner sleeve 112 and orifice 104 ontodistributor plate 68. From the distributor plate 68, the water dripsdownward onto the coffee bed and along the conical surface of the base44 through the coarse and fine filters and into pot 10. It will be notedthat the lower row of holes in each of the coarse and fine filters ispositioned slightly above the outer limits of the base portion confinedby each filter. This distance may be, for example, approximately onesixteenth inch and serves as a sediment trap.

Once the water has drained from the teakettle 70 to the lower edge ofaperture 108, the handle 76 may be rotated back to its initial position,permitting the projection 140 to snap back into keyway 138 locking thehandle into position. Thereafter, the teakettle may be removed and theremaining water employed as desired. It will also be noted by referenceto FIG. 3 that the lowermost aperture of the outer sleeve is positionedabove the bottom of the teakettle. Accordingly, even if l2 cups ofcoffee are made, some water remains in the kettle 70 for the purpose ofmaking tea.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that a number ofvariations and modifications may be made in this invention withoutdeparting from its spirit and scope. For example, valve assembly 84 isillustrated as comprising vertically aligned apertures in the outersleeve and staggered apertures in the inner sleeve. This arrangementcould, of course, be reversed with similar results. Also, the slidevalve 56, although provid ing optimum performance, may be dispensedwith, if desired. Other variations and modifications will readilysuggest themselves to those skilled in the art. Accordingly, theforegoing description is to be construed as illustrative only ratherthan limiting.

What is claimed is:

1. A combination coffee maker and teakettle which comprises: areceptacle for brewed coffee; filter means positionable atop saidreceptacle for supporting ground coffee therein; and a teakettlepositionable atop said filter means and including selectively adjustablevalve means for releasing into said filter means one of severalpreselected quantities of hot water.

2. The article of claim 1 wherein said teakettle includes an electricheater therein.

3. The article of claim 1 wherein said teakettle includes a pouringspout and a handle and wherein said teakettle retains a quantity ofwater regardless of the preselected quantity of water released into saidfilter means.

4. The article of claim 1 wherein said valve means comprises: an outersleeve extending between the top and bottom of said teakettle anddefining at its lower end a water-releasing orifice; an inner sleeverotatably mounted in said outer sleeve having an open lower end adjacentsaid orifice, said inner and outer sleeves defining pairs of openings,the openings of each pair being positioned at different levels withinsaid teakettle and selectively alignable upon rotation of said innersleeve; and means for rotating said inner sleeve.

5. The article of claim 4 wherein said rotating means comprises handlemeans secured to said inner sleeve and nonrotatable relative thereto.

6. The article of claim 5 wherein said handle means comprises: detentmeans normally positioning said inner sleeve with all of said openingpairs in nonaligned positions; and resilient biasing means operable by auser to release said detent means.

7. A combination coffee maker and teakettle which comprises: areceptacle for brewed coffee; filter means positionable atop saidreceptacle for supporting ground coffee therein; and a teakettlepositionable atop said filter means and including valve means forreleasing into said filter means a preselected quantity of hot water;said filter means including an outer housing having an open lower endpositionable within said receptacle and a larger open upper end arrangedto support said teakettle; a substantially cylindrical outer filterdepending from said lower end; a convex base closing the lower end ofsaid outer filter; and a substantially cylindrical inner filterextending upwardly from said base into said housing, said inner andouter filters being in sequential fluid flow relationship with waterpassing from said housing into said receptacle.

8. The article of claim 7 wherein said valve means is selectivelyadjustable to release one of several preselected quantities of hotwater.

9. The article of claim 8 wherein said valve means comprises: an outersleeve extending between the top and bottom of said teakettle anddefining at its lower end a water-releasing orifice; an inner sleeverotatably mounted in said outer sleeve iruruz nuan prises handle meanssecured to said inner sleeve and nonrotatable relative thereto.

12. The article of claim 11 wherein said handle means comprises: detentmeans normally positioning said inner sleeve with all of said openingpairs in nonaligned positions; and resilient biasing means operable by auser to release said detent means.

1. A combination coffee maker and teakettle which comprises: areceptacle for brewed coffee; filter means positionable atop saidreceptacle for supporting ground coffee therein; and a teakettlepositionable atop said filter means and including selectively adjustablevalve means for releasing into said filter means one of severalpreselected quantities of hot water.
 2. The article of claim 1 whereinsaid teakettle includes an electric heater therein.
 3. The article ofclaim 1 wherein said teakettle includes a pouring spout and a handle andwherein said teakettle retains a quantity of water regardless of thepreselected quantity of water released into said filter means.
 4. Thearticle of claim 1 wherein said valve means comprises: an outer sleeveextending between the top and bottom of said teakettle and defining atits lower end a water-releasing orifice; an inner sleeve rotatablymounted in said outer sleeve having an open lower end adjacent saidorifice, said inner and outer sleeves defining pairs of openings, theopenings of each pair being positioned at different levels within saidteakettle and selectively alignable upon rotation of said inner sleeve;and means for rotating said inner sleeve.
 5. The article of claim 4wherein said rotating means comprises handle means secured to said innersleeve and nonrotatable relative thereto.
 6. The article of claim 5wherein said handle means comprises: detent means normally positioningsaid inner sleeve with all of said opening pairs in nonalignedpositions; and resilient biasing means operable by a user to releasesaid detent means.
 7. A combination coffee maker and teakettle whichcomprises: a receptacle for brewed coffee; filter means positionableatop said receptacle for supporting ground coffee therein; and ateakettle positionable atop said filter means and including valve meansfor releasing into said filter means a preselected quantity of hotwater; said filter means including an outer housing having an open lowerend positionable within said receptacle and a larger open upper endarranged to support said teakettle; a substantially cylindrical outerfilter depending from said lower end; a convex base closing the lowerend of said outer filter; and a substantially cylindrical inner filterextending upwardly from said base into said housing, said inner andouter filters being in sequential fluid flow relationship with waterpassing from said housing into said receptacle.
 8. The article of claim7 wherein said valve means is selectively adjustable to release one ofseveral preselected quantities of hot water.
 9. The article of claim 8wherein said valve means comprises: an outer sleeve extending betweenthe top and bottom of said teakettle and defining at its lower end awater-releasing orifice; an inner sleeve rotatably mounted in said outersleeve having an open lower end adjacent said orifice, said inner andouter sleeves defining pairs of openings, the openings of each pairbeing positioned at different levels within said teakettle andselectively alignable upon rotation of said inner sleeve; and means forrotating said inner sleeve.
 10. The article of claim 9 wherein saidinner and outer sleeves have complementary conical tapers.
 11. Thearticle of claim 9 wherein said rotating means comprises handle meanssecured to said inner sleeve and nonrotatable relative thereto.
 12. Thearticle of claim 11 wherein said handle means comprises: detent meansnormally positioning said inner sleeve with all of said opening pairs innonaligned positions; and resilient biasing means operable by a user torelease said detent means.